Syria in Real Predicament as Foreign Intervention Continues

UN's limited moves to put an end to the crisis

Alwaght- Emergence of ISIS terrorist group in Syria gave the Western governments the excuse for military presence in the Arab country. But their insistence on the military dispatch to the crisis-hit nation came while the legitimate government in Damascus did not invite them for help. In fact, it was the chaotic conditions of West Asia region, to which the conflict in Syria stands as the brazen showcase, that have paved the way for the Western leaders to lead an illegal and uninvited military intervention under the ruse of fighting terrorism.

However, when the self-proclaimed ISIS caliphate was obliterated in mid-2017 in Syria at the hands of the Syrian government and its staunchest allies, it was exposed to the world that the anti-terror combat was a sham pretext behind which the US and some of the European powers hid to intervene in Syria. Because even after ISIS removal, at least organizationally if not ideologically, the West embarked on measures that majorly slowed down the efforts to find a final solution to the crisis and cleanse the other parts of the country from other non-ISIS terrorist factions.

The latest Western missile strikes on the Syrian government’s positions have even compounded the already intricate and massive crisis. On April 14, the US, Britain, and France launched raids on three Syrian government’s facilities. The trio argued that the assault was a response to a chemical attack in Eastern Ghouta in the capital’s outskirt that they blame on the Syrian government, something Damascus categorically denied, saying that the scenario was preplanned and was meant to help the terrorists.

Nearly a fortnight after the strikes, the UN is warning that the situation is leaning towards deterioration and that it is leading efforts to make the warring sides return to the negotiating table to find a settlement the war, now in its eighth year. But the UN's pro-peace motions seem to go nowhere in the short run as in the past few days the foreign forces made new remarks and intervention detrimental to the peace efforts.

UN's limited moves to put an end to the crisis

The United Nations recently began a process to put a new life into the peace process by trying to settle the differences between the major actors and persuading them back to the peace talks. The latest attempt came on Saturday when the UN Security Council held a meeting in a small village in southern Sweden to discuss what steps needed to be taken to defuse the conflict.

According to the Associated Press news agency, Sweden, a temporary member of the 15-member UNSC, invited the other members and also the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to an unofficial conference to negotiate the Syrian case. This is the first time that the Security Council, normally holding its gatherings in New York as the regular hosting city, holds its meeting in Sweden.

Following the session, the UN chief in a press conference told the reporters that any Syrian solution should be based on the UNSC's resolution 2254, Geneva Statement on Syria, and through dialogue on the Syrian soil between the Damascus government and the opposition factions that will allow them to eliminate peace obstacles. The secretary-general added that the international community needed to reach a solution to stave off the violation of the international laws, like the case with the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria.

Moreover, Staffan de Mistura, the Italian-Swedish diplomat who has been serving as the UN envoy to Syria since 2014, asked the Syrian government to cooperate with the UN to help wind down the regional tensions escalation. De Mistura, as quoted by the Russian Sputnik news agency, held that last week was a “difficult and tense” week in Syria, referring to the week in which Western missile strikes took place. He added that if they do not pursue a peaceful solution in a constructive way, things could slide out of control. The UN envoy, stressing that de-escalation of tensions is a top priority in the next month’s negotiations in Astana, Kazakhstan, said that the UN needed to absorb more countries into the Astana dialogue conference. He maintained that Syrians should themselves solve their problems and that the international community can only help in this course. Reacting to the mid-April air raids on Syria by the three Western allies, de Mistura said that what happened will never influence the political process in Syria. Staffan de Mistura made the comments after holding talks on Friday with Sergey Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, in Moscow.

Ongoing foreign intervention obstacle to materialization of peace

Intensification of the Syrian predicament and delay in full cleaning Syria from the terrorist factions should be blamed on the illegal interference and hostilities of foreign powers, including as the US, Saudi Arabia, the Israeli regime, and even Turkey, that back terrorist groups. Whenever the Syrian government’s forces, aided by the Iran-led Resistance camp and Russia, make a progress against the terrorists in a multi-front confrontation, the anti-Syrian countries formulate a ploy against Damascus to slacken the pace of anti-terror progression and even foil Damascus terrorist-cleansing plans.

This approach continues to exist. In the past few days, the opposition media reports talked about the arrival of French military forces alongside the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a majorly Kurdish militant alliance that also has a small number of Arab opposition factions, to Deir ez-Zor in the east of the country. According to the Iranian IRNA news agency, which quoted sources familiar with the development, earlier this week, some French units, accompanied by the Kurdish units, entered Kam Ataullah region in northeastern Deir ez-Zor. Sources were quoted as saying that the forces entered the Al-Jafra oilfield and from there moved to Badia Akidat and Alsur District in Deir ez-Zor. These reports emerge while the units from the French military are already stationed in five areas– Tall Mishtanoor, Sarin District, Lafarge Cement Plant, Kharab Eshq village, and Ein Isa village– in the northeast of the country.

In addition to the French territorial violations, the Turkish President continues violating the Syrian territorial sovereignty. Under the guise of fighting terrorism and distancing what he called the Kurdish threats from his borders, the Turkish army invaded the northern Syria city of Afrin, a predominantly Kurdish city, on January 20 under “Olive Branch” operation. It took the Turkish forces 58 days to seize Afrin, one of the three autonomously-ruled Kurdish cantons. After Afrin capture, Erdogan said that he was resolved to seize more Kurdish-controlled regions in Syria’s north despite the Western help to the Kurds.

The aspects of the foreign intervention in Syria can be broadened if we put the Israeli air aggression into the circle. Tzachi Hanegbi, Israeli minister of regional cooperation, revealed on Saturday that Tel Aviv in the past few years launched more than 100 air assaults in Syria and Lebanon. Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, talking to Israeli radio on Sunday, repeated his peers' concerns about the Iranian presence in Syria, alleging that Tel Aviv will not allow Tehran to build permanent military bases in the Syrian territories.

All these remarks signal that massive efforts by the anti-Damascus Western and Israeli officials are in the works to keep the fire of war burning at any cost, because they can not put up with Resistance camp’s successes and the possible return of stability to Syria in the near future. The current Syrian circumstances are truly read as a big defeat to the West and Israeli regime, who are struggling to turn the tide to their advantage by fueling the crisis and involving deeper in the devastating conflict.